Is It Time for a "Black Uber"?

Sometimes, discrimination leads to innovation. Despite the ubiquitous popularity of ride-sharing apps like Uber and Lyft, a new study says Black users wait an average of 30% longer for UberX rides, and people with Black sounding names had their UberX trips canceled twice as often as those with white-sounding names.

“Technology was supposed to be a tool that mitigated discrimination because it’s based on algorithms rather than subjective expectations. But we see that doesn’t always happen,” Darrick Hamilton, a professor of economics and urban policy at The New School in New York City told USA Today.

Unfortunately, discrimination of any kind comes at no surprise, and innovators in the Black community have always responded by building businesses to supply us with discrimination-free goods and services. Tech startups like Innclusive were created out of a similar frustration with racial discrimination on the site airbnb.